Hakone travel info

Grab a front seat on the Romancecar out of Shinjuku and the driver's cab is upstairs, so all you see through the glass is track rushing at you. About an hour and a half later you step off at Hakone-Yumoto and the air already smells of hot springs. From here, sightseeing is mostly a game of changing vehicles: a little red mountain train zigzags up the slope by reversing direction, then a cable car from Gora, then a ropeway from Sounzan.

As the gondola clears the ridge the ground below turns grey. This is Owakudani, a valley where white sulphur steam pours out of every crack, and on a clear day Mt Fuji sits right behind it. Peel a jet-black hot-spring egg, ride the gondola down, and a three-masted pirate ship is waiting on Lake Ashi. Across the water, a red torii standing in the shallows marks Hakone Shrine.

You can do the loop as a day trip, but Hakone really wants an overnight stay. The point is the evening: a yukata, an outdoor bath, mountain mist rolling down while you soak. Send your big bags from Yumoto Station to your inn and travel light, and leave slack in the plan, because weekend afternoon buses can sit in traffic on the mountain roads for a long time.

Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND)

Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT)

Central Tokyo (Shinjuku / Tokyo Station) (TYO)